Feasibility Study for a Training Center and Course Provider in Egypt

How a training centre makes money, and where it loses it

A training centre sells seats in courses with a start and an end date. The room, the rent and the front-desk team are fixed costs you pay whether the room is full or not, and the trainer is paid for the whole course even if 5 trainees turn up instead of 16. So a training centre feasibility study starts from two numbers: the fill rate, meaning seats sold ÷ seats available in a course, and the number of courses each room runs per month. Multiply them and you know whether your rooms earn money or burn it.

After those come three numbers that separate a centre that works from one that closes: how you pay trainers (by the hour or on salary), the slow months when demand drops, and how you collect: does the trainee pay the full fee upfront or in instalments, and how much do you refund someone who drops out.

This page is about adult training, not school tutoring centres

We mean a centre offering professional and skills courses for adults: languages, software, accounting, marketing, and corporate training. Private tutoring centres for school students (known in Egypt as "centres") are a different activity that this page does not cover, and the Ministry of Education's stated position on them is to reduce reliance on them, not to license them: on 30 October 2022 the minister at the time denied, before the Senate education committee, that the ministry sought to license tutoring centres¹; in September 2024 minister Mohamed Abdel Latif said the centres could not be closed without parents' help and support for a culture of school learning²; and in October 2026 he said regular school attendance had reduced reliance on private tutoring centres³. If your idea is teaching school curricula, that is a different study with different legal risks.

Licensing: the Labour Law and Decree 264 of 2025

Labour Law No. 14 of 2025 regulates "training operations" and defines training as a process that enables a person to acquire and develop the knowledge, technical skills and professional conduct needed to prepare them for suitable work⁴. Article 22 says no entity may carry out training operations unless it takes the form of a joint-stock company, a partnership limited by shares, a limited liability company or a one-person company. It exempts employers' organisations and trade unions, associations and NGOs, government training bodies for their own staff, employers training their own workers, and entities rehabilitating people with disabilities⁴. Article 23 requires a licence from the competent ministry, and the minister sets its fee "not exceeding one hundred thousand pounds"⁴. In other words, a sole proprietorship or a general or simple limited partnership is not a valid form for a centre carrying out training in this sense.

The Minister of Labour set out the details in Decree No. 264 of 2025, published in the official gazette Al-Waqa'i Al-Misriya on 25 December 2025⁵. What matters most for your numbers⁵:

• No programme may run before the Ministry of Labour grants the licence, and no programme that is not listed in it.
• Premises inspection fee EGP 8,000; licence fee EGP 15,000 for three years; EGP 3,000 per trainer for a three-year trainer licence; EGP 100 to certify each trainee's certificate; and EGP 10,000 for a licence to train online through a platform.
• No unlicensed trainer may be used, and a trainer needs at least three years' experience in the profession and a train-the-trainer certificate.
• A title deed for the premises or a registered (fixed-date) lease of at least three years, premises separate from any other commercial or educational activity, and an owner or responsible manager with at least a university degree.
• The trade name may not include the words academy, institute, college or university, or words such as national, international or global.
• Training only at the licensed premises; training anywhere else needs prior written permission from the ministry, or the licence may be cancelled.
• The annual training plan, including fees, must be approved at least two months before it starts, and the licence is cancelled if the centre charges trainees more than the approved plan states.
• Operating rules that set how fees are collected and how they are refunded if a trainee does not complete the programme, and insurance for trainers and trainees against work injuries and serious accidents throughout the training.

If you plan to award certificates or degrees that look academic, be careful: in October 2026 the Ministry of Higher Education closed 4 entities in Giza, one of them with "academy" in its name, for unlicensed activity and for promoting fake certificates and academic degrees⁶. The competent body can differ with the type of training, so confirm it before you incorporate. Maher Consulting Firm can handle company formation.

VAT: the service is exempt, and its inputs become your cost

The list of goods and services exempt from VAT attached to the VAT law includes "Educational, training, and academic research services" (item 38 in the Egyptian Tax Authority's official English translation)⁷. The exemption has another side: VAT on inputs used only for exempt sales is not deductible⁸, so the 14% you pay on furniture, equipment and advertising is a final cost to you. Confirm with an accountant that all your programmes fall within the exemption before you set prices.

Watch the rent too: Law No. 149 of 2026, published on 28 July 2026 and in force from the day after publication, rewrote the rental item in the exemption list. It now excludes leases of units used as an independent seat for running an activity, while excepting premises of religious, charitable, social, educational and health activities⁹. Does a private training centre count as an educational activity here? The text does not settle it, so ask your accountant before you sign, because 14% on rent is not something you can deduct.

Illustrative example: a centre with three rooms

This is an illustrative example. Its figures are assumptions to explain the method, except the government fees, the wage and social insurance:

• Capacity: 3 rooms, 16 seats each, and each room can host 4 courses a month (two evening slots × two sets of weekdays), so 12 courses a month at most. The plan is 8 courses in a normal month.
• Course: 24 hours over 4 weeks at EGP 2,800 per trainee. Trainers are paid by the hour: EGP 250, so EGP 6,000 per course.
• Per trainee: materials, insurance and certificate EGP 300, and advertising cost per enrolled trainee EGP 500.
• Refunds: 5% of enrolled trainees drop out after the first session and get a full refund.
• Fill rate: 75%, so 12 trainees out of 16.
• Corporate training: one course a month from month three at the client's premises with the ministry's written permission, EGP 36,000 for 15 employees, collected 60 days later.
• Fixed costs: rent EGP 40,000; 3 staff (front desk, sales and an assistant) at the private-sector minimum wage of EGP 7,000 applied from 1 March 2025¹⁰, plus the employer's 18.75% social-insurance share¹¹, so EGP 24,937.5; utilities, internet, accountant, software and maintenance EGP 10,000. Total EGP 74,937.5. The owner runs the centre without a salary.

Contribution is what a course leaves after its variable costs. Each seat sold leaves EGP 1,860 before the trainer and fixed costs. In a normal month with eight courses, you need a 51.6% fill rate (about 8.3 trainees per course) to cover all costs from individual courses alone, falling to 40.9% with the corporate course. The method is explained in our article on break-even and working capital.

Cash in the first year, slow months included

We assume the centre opens in September and runs fewer courses in the two university exam months (January and June) and in summer. Start-up costs are EGP 405,000: room fit-out 180,000, office and devices 40,000, rent deposit 80,000, licence, inspection and 4 trainer licences 35,000, incorporation 30,000 and pre-opening marketing 40,000. Because the licence and plan approval come before the first course, we add two months of rent and one month of salaries before opening (EGP 104,937.5). 60% of trainees pay in full at the start, and 40% pay in two instalments: half at the start and half the following month.

(Amounts rounded to the nearest pound.) The centre makes an operating profit from its first month, yet its deepest cash need reaches EGP 525,259 in September and the balance does not turn positive until August. A normal month earns EGP 81,122.5; a month with four courses earns only EGP 15,842.5. The difference between profit and cash is explained in our article on cash flow for small businesses.

What if the fill rate drops or the refund policy changes?

The same example with one or more assumptions changed, in EGP:

A drop in fill rate from 75% to 50% wipes out more than 90% of the year's profit, because the trainer and the rent do not fall with attendance. A lenient refund policy that lifts drop-outs from 5% to 12% costs EGP 4,032 per course instead of 1,680. Instalments do not change profit but they delay cash. So write your refund policy into the operating rules, as Decree 264 requires, and set a clear cut-off date after which no refund is due.

Trainers by the hour or on salary?

A trainer on a EGP 15,000 salary costs you EGP 17,812.5 with social insurance (the salary is below the EGP 16,700 maximum insurable wage¹¹), about the cost of 3 courses paid by the hour (17,812.5 ÷ 6,000 = 2.97). If each trainer teaches 4 courses a month, two salaried trainers cost EGP 35,625 instead of 48,000 by the hour, saving EGP 12,375. In a four-course month they cost EGP 11,625 more. Over the year the salary saved EGP 40,500 in the example, but that saving depends on full timetables. The rule: start by the hour, and move a trainer to salary once they regularly teach more than 3 courses a month. The logic is close to that of a coworking space feasibility study: an empty seat never comes back.

The corporate course in the example leaves EGP 25,500 with no advertising and no room, against EGP 16,320 for an individual course, even though the price per trainee is only EGP 2,400; but it is collected two months later, and running it at the client's premises needs the ministry's prior written permission. To price the course itself, see our article on how to price your product.

Common mistakes in a training centre feasibility study

1. Calculating revenue on full rooms instead of a realistic fill rate and an actual number of courses per room.
2. Ignoring the slow months and assuming 8 courses every month.
3. Starting before the licence, calling the centre an "academy", choosing a sole proprietorship, or using an unlicensed trainer.
4. Forgetting rent and salaries before the first course during licensing and plan approval.
5. Promising "accredited" certificates from bodies that have not accredited them.
6. Treating the VAT exemption as a pure gain, when input VAT cannot be deducted.
7. An unwritten refund policy decided case by case.

Frequently asked questions about a training centre feasibility study

Sources

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